Overcoming challenges in microbiome research and applications

The volume and scale of research within the microbiome field has grown rapidly over recent years. With this explosion comes the need for the implementation of standards to ensure research is reproducible and innovative applications have the scientific backing they need to be successful.

This on demand webinar covers the challenges facing microbiome researchers – from 16S rRNA and shotgun metagenomics methods to NGS and sample preparation – and the solutions to these problems. It will also cover the development of standardized assays and tools for microbiome research and how these tools can be utilized at a laboratory level.

What will you learn?

The challenges faced by microbiome researchers
The complexities involved in 16S rRNA, shotgun metagenomics, NGS and sample preparation
The development of standards for microbiome research
How standards can benefit microbiome researchers

Featured speakers:

Jack Gilbert

Director of the Microbiome Center, University of Chicago

Jack uses molecular analysis to test fundamental hypotheses in microbial ecology. Currently, Jack is the director of the Microbiome Center and a professor of surgery at the University of Chicago. He is also group leader for microbial ecology at Argonne National Laboratory, research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History (IL, USA), scientific fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MA, USA), and the Yeoh Ghim Seng Visiting Professorship in Surgery at the National University of Singapore.

He founded the Earth Microbiome Project and co-founded the American Gut Project. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on metagenomics and approaches to ecosystem ecology. In 2014 he was recognized on Crain’s Business Chicago’s 40 Under 40 List, and in 2015 he was listed as one of the 50 most influential scientists by Business Insider, and in the Brilliant Ten by Popular Scientist. He also co-authored “Dirt is Good” published in 2017, a popular science guide to the microbiome and children’s health.

Dev Mittar

Lead Scientist and Head of Microbiology R&D, ATCC

Dev earned his PhD in microbiology from the Punjab Agricultural University (Ludhiana, India), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University (NY, USA) where he focused on cellular microbiology and high-content screening. He transitioned from academia to industry about 12 years ago, spending the first 7 of those years working on product and assay development in different divisions of Becton Dickinson (NJ, USA). He joined ATCC (VA, USA) in 2013 as the head of their microbiology research and development group; there, he focuses on designing new products and product formats that meet the unique needs of scientific investigators employing a wide range of traditional and molecular applications.

Amanda Young

Senior Manager, Scientific Research, Illumina

Amanda earned her BA in biology from Cornell University (NY, USA) and her PhD in biology from MIT (MA, USA). Amanda joined Illumina (CA, USA) in 2011 and is now an experienced senior manager; leading scientific teams to develop innovative solutions for applications in genomics, including microbiology, infectious diseases and agriculture, based on Illumina’s next-generation sequencing technology.

This webinar was recorded on 6th November 2018